4/14/2018

Just near Mt. Fuji, Staying in freezing winter in Yamanashi Prefecture.


 Live with a beautiful mountain is a huge experience for many people, especially if it is world heritage. In the cold winter of mid February 2018, I made a two-week trip and stayed Yamanashi Prefecture (山梨県), near Mt. Fuji, at 3,776m, the highest mountain in Japan.




 Everyday was another cold day, and person like me who lives in Tokyo couldn't believe how cold it was. Just less than two hours ride on bus, Yamanashi Prefecture is almost a  whole different country with low temperature in the nights (in an average of minus 12 degrees Celsius). In my life with many traveling to countries, I had never been such a freezing place.


 Thankfully, the weather had been good during my stay, and I could see the mountain wherever I was. It was not only high, indeed it was massive, and I wasn't sick of it at all ;)




 Sometimes I took a walk around a beautiful lake in my neighbour Lake Kawaguchi (河口湖). It's one of Fuji Five Lakes (富士五湖), spreading around the north of the mountain. There was a pathway along the shore with some wooden bench. It must be nice place to read a book it it wasn't so cold, haha.






 Thanks to the mountain being nominated to the world heritage in 2013, many tourists began to come, and top-notch cafes and restaurants as well as accommodations are widely available. I visited one of fine cafes near the lake, felt like being home :)



 I believe it was a bank of some sort....



 Also, I drove to other lake, which was Lake Yamanaka (山中湖). Due to its altitude of 980m, there was covered with thick ice in the north. I could walk on the iced surface a bit (I have no courage to go further, you know!)






 Beautiful mountain covered with snow on top, mirror like lakes....Yamanashi Prefecture is a great place to go, if you can cope with its cold!

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